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3 Reasons You’re Not Getting Stuff Done For Your Blog and Business

I talk a lot about productivity tips for bloggers and entrepreneurs over here on the blog. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be talking more about getting stuff done for your blog and business using one of my favorite project management tools: Trello!

If you’re that blogger who is learning, taking, and implementing a random tip from a random blog, you’re not going to go very far with your blog. Or at least not very far, very quickly. I hate to be the one who breaks it to you.

This is because implementing one small tip rarely brings a huge impact to your blog or a change to your lifestyle.

Instead, you need to know what you want, what goals you want to achieve, so you know what projects you’re going to work on to get there.

Notice in that sentence, I didn’t mention anything about learning and implementing TIPS.

I think we all like tips because they’re easy to implement and take action on. I love ‘em too, but I have to admit that they never have much of a big impact on my blog.

For example, have you ever been told to get that free plugin and that it’s going to change the trajectory of your blog?

Sure, having that plugin might make your life a little easier, but the impact is never as huge as people make it seem.

The truth is, if you’re not setting any goals, how do you know which direction you’re heading in? If you don’t know which direction you’re heading in, how are you going to get projects done for your blog or business?

Now you might have a to-do list, but are you creating a to-do list based on how other people are running their blogs and businesses? (I’ll talk more about to-do lists in my next point.)

My point is, everything begins with the goals you set for yourself, whether you have monetary goals, personal goals, or both. I like to have both.

It’s hard to get anything done for your blog if you don’t know WHAT you’re suppose to be doing.

#2 You’re not getting stuff done because you still use a to-do list.

You probably have been told all your life to have a to-do list. It’s the key to getting things done.

You’re always on Pinterest looking for ideas and tips to be more organized so you can streamline your workload.

Honestly, for most of my life, I did that too. Until I realized it just wasn’t ENOUGH.

On the surface, there’s really nothing wrong with a to-do list. It even seems like the RIGHT thing to do. You have a piece of paper with a list of items you need to check off. So you go head on checking them off.

Sounds awesome right?

Except why aren’t you seeing the results you want to see?

Because all you’re doing is a nest of random tasks that doesn’t fit into the larger picture.

Let me give you an example. Ever had a to-list that looked like this?

Install the SEO plugin

Figure out how to activate Pinterest rich pins on my WordPress blog

Come up with a service to offer through my blog

Follow up with guest posting site to see if my request to submit a guest post has been approved

Go on social media and waste all my time talking to strangers (Okay maybe the last one is a bit of an exaggeration)

Notice how random those things are?

But yet, the above list fits perfectly into the definition of a to-do list right? So what’s wrong with it?

My question to you is, by doing all those things in the list above, where is that going to take you? What’s the tangible goal you’re going to achieve?

It’s probably a little hard for you to answer that question right?

You might get all those things done and it still feels like you’re not getting stuff done for your blog or business. Why? That’s because you set the tactics before you set the strategy!

That standalone to-do list had lots of random action items that won’t get you anywhere. That means you can have a list of 100 things to do for your blog and still not see a profit churn.

So if having a to-do list isn’t the key, then what is?

Having checklists or to-do lists are great. But that’s not where it begins. It begins with the goal.

For instance, let’s say you want to make $1000 from your blog this month.

So what can you do to get there?

Sell two of your $500 web design packages.

Notice that by setting that goal and asking yourself how you’re going to get there, you can save tons of time. This means the following is all irrelevant.

Install the SEO plugin

Figure out how to activate Pinterest rich pins on my WordPress blog

Follow up with guest posting site to see if my request to submit a guest post has been approved

Go on social media and waste all my time talking to strangers (Okay maybe the last one is a bit of an exaggeration)

If installing that SEO plugin is not going to help you sell those two web design packages, then you can take that off your list. But if talking to people on social media can help you land that client, then by all means, that’s something to add to your to-do list.

Notice how your to-do list just got more purposeful?

And even if you only checked off two items from that list above, it still seems like you got a lot done for your blog.

You don’t need to add every piece of dirty laundry to it. You just need the things that truly matter. Nice to haves are nice to haves, but they’re not must-haves.

Now a to-do list is rather straightforward and I’m sure many people like it because it’s easy to whip up one. But if you wanted to map out higher-level goals down to the smallest projects, how do you do that?

With a project management tools and Trello boards! And that’s our next point.

#3 You’re not getting stuff done because you’re not using project management tools.

If you were creating a to-do list, paper and pen would suffice. But you’re doing more than that now. You have goals, projects, tasks and action items.

So what can you do?

You can use a project management tool. And the term may sound a little clinical if you’re not tech savvy, but trust me, it’s a very intuitive and flexible style board where you can move things around.

Imagine having a colorful wall of post-its that you can move around to conjure up the puzzle. Except if you use post-its after a while, the costs will add up and you will have killed too many trees.

By using project management tools (Trello is my favorite!), you can go as far as planning out your entire year or simply plan one quarter at a time. Then, plan out the fun projects you’re going to work on and then the tasks beneath each project.

I first came up with workflows about six months ago when I going through a huge slump for my blog. I felt uncreative and didn’t know what next steps to take for my blog. I just woke up, did the work for that day and tomorrow I would be back at the same place again.

I didn’t plan. And because I didn’t, I was all over the place. I was doing a little bit of everything and just wasn’t getting optimal results.

One of the first Trello boards I created was a content workflow board where I chopped up the content creation process to five phases. These five phases were:

Of course, there’s more to blogging than that. What about the nitty gritty things you need to do for each blog post? Well, once you create a card for each blog post (see image below), you can create (and even organize) your to-do lists within each card.

I know just by seeing the image can be difficult. I’ve recorded a short video where I walk you through how you can use Trello in action for your blog or business. As a gift, I’m giving you the exact Content Workflow Trello board template that I use.

Ready to use Trello and start getting stuff done for your blog and business?

Until next time,

Judy

Hi, I'm Judy! I've owned at least four blogs over the last 10 years, from general lifestyle to skincare to blogging. Combined with my experience in digital marketing tech startup, I give away all my blogging and productivity tips and secrets that will make bloggers and creative entrepreneurs successful online.

Hey, it's me Judy!

Blogging | Productivity Boss

Hi, I'm Judy! I've owned at least four blogs over the last 10 years, from general lifestyle to skincare to blogging. Combined with my experience in digital marketing tech startup, I give away blogging and productivity tips and tools that will make bloggers successful online.